I860.] REVIEW. 31 



vegetables or animals, Mr. Thwaites established a European fame before 

 he came to Ceylon. . . . 



" Respecting the labour attending such a work as that of Mr. Thwaites, 

 none, perhaps, but those who have paid considerable attention to botany 

 can appreciate it. Were he to sit down and write all he found in books, 

 or the names and information given by natives and others for the most 

 common plants of Ceylon, he could certainly write a large book, and a 

 book that to a great number of readers would doubtless be a very inter- 

 esting one ; but to separate the truth and the really useful information 

 from the mass of contradictions and rubbish such a work would be sure to 

 contain would be as difficult a task as that of ridding a dirty Coffee estate 

 of the planters' two great enemies, the Hullan-talla and the Spanish Needle, 

 respectively known to botanists as the Ageratum conyzoidts and the Bidens 

 Chinensls, neither of which is admitted to be a native of Ceylon ; or to get 

 through a jungle composed of Eattans, Kudumirris-wsel, Maha, and Heen- 

 - Eraminyas, all of which are calculated to impress the traveller with the 

 sentiment conveyed by the words ' Wait awhile.' To illustrate more 

 fully our remarks, we refer our readers to the contradictory accounts of 

 the mode of extracting toddy from the Palm-trees ; some asserting that an 

 incision is made into the tree, into the leaves, or into buds above the leaves, 

 while very few describe the operation con-ectly. 



" We have ^always advocated the importance of obtaining the native 

 names of the plants, and have asserted that the majority of the Singhalese 

 are, from necessity, as vegetarians, considerable herbalists, and well ac- 

 quainted with the names of the mass of the common plants of their coun- 

 try ; but we would guard our readers against the supposition that they 

 will take the trouble to give correct names, unless they find out that the 

 person asking for information can detect a gross deception, or discriminate 

 the applicability of the names so given. 



" While there are certain genera of plants, for every species of which the 

 natives can give unvarying names, there are others containing ten to twenty 

 species, for all of which they can only give one or two names. We shall 

 instance the genus Memecylon, of which Mr. Thwaites, in his list of genera, 

 gives thii-ty-three species, twenty of which will likely be found good ones ; 

 the Singhalese seem to know only two names, viz. Welli-KaJia and Kora- 

 KaJia, and one or other of these they invariably give for at least ten species 

 of this genus. In regard to their idea that there is a larger proportion of 

 the flowering plants which never produce flowers, they are not less igno- 

 rant in this respect than a great number of our own countrymen. On one 

 occasion we were collecting specimens of that interesting plant the Her- 

 nandia Sonora ; it was loaded with fruits, and on asking an Englishman, 

 who lived close by and who also assisted in procuring the specimens, if he 

 could see and bring down some with Jlowers on, our botanical pipe was 



